Sunday, 6 December 2015

Murakami's Roadster ND Demo Car

Murakami Motors' new demo car began life as an S grade model with six-speed manual gearbox finished in Ceramic Metallic. The car is being used to develop new performance parts for the ND for track and street use. Like all of the Japanese fourth generation Roadsters the car has a 1.5 litre engine producing around 130PS.

The car's initial exterior modifications included contrasting Soul Red door mirrors, front and rear tow hooks, a Fujitsubo Authorise R muffler, and a shorty radio antenna. The wheels were changed for smaller and wider 15"x8J TE37 from Rays, their simple six spoke design looks good on pretty much any car. The interior work includes replacing the driver's seat with a Recaro racing seat to give extra support. Takata harnesses, Murakami's own leg support pad, and a Sparco suede steering wheel are also fitted.

Performance modifications are focused on improvements to the car's braking and handling. The S grade doesn't come with a front suspension tower brace so instead the car is fitted with Murakami's own engine bay and wing braces to stiffen up the front end. The S grade is also lacking a limited slip differential as standard, so an upgraded Carbon LSD from Active Traction Service has been fitted. The Mazda brake pads and fluid have been changed for uprated parts from Acre.

The car had a makeover in early December and now wears the Murakami signature orange paintwork with bright green highlights. You may recognise this colour scheme from their NC Nopro-kitted endurance racer. New Rays TE37 wheels with a matt black finish were fitted along with Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R high performance tyres. The standard suspension has been swapped out for an adjustable racing setup by Spirit.
The Mazdaspeed front lip was fitted along with a prototype carbon fibre hardtop for improved aerodynamics on track. The hardtop weighs as little as 3kg and was developed by Index Industrial Design's Porco Rosso using their specialist skills in composite materials. The rear spoiler fitted to the bootlid is from the NB2 accessory catalogue and works well with the car's overall look. The PorcoRosso hardtop can also be found on Cusco's demo Roadster, as seen below.
For more information please see www.murakami-m.jp